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On Wednesday morning, a new cheetah was discovered dead in Madhya Pradesh's Kuno National Park (KNP), bringing the total number of cheetah fatalities at KNP to nine.
According to a forest officer who wished to remain anonymous, the female cheetah that was relocated from Namibia may have perished from "septicemia due to skin abrasion," but this will only be known after the post-mortem.
"One of the female cheetahs, Dhatri (Tiblisi), was discovered dead in the wild on Wednesday morning. A post-mortem is being performed to ascertain the reason for the death, according to MP Chief Wildlife Warden Aseem Shrivastava.
The other 14 cheetahs, including a cub, are in the enclosure. There were two female cheetahs in the wild, Dhatri and Nirva.
"The team made up of Kuno wildlife veterinarians and experts from Namibia regularly monitors the health of all 14 cheetahs (07 males, 06 females, and 1 female cub) kept in bomas at KNP," Shrivastava continued.
Following the recent infection-related deaths of two cheetahs, Tejas and Suraj, and the discovery of three cheetahs with infections from skin abrasions close to the radio collar, the forest officials were attempting to capture them for medical testing.
According to reports, Nirva, another cheetah, was lost because the radio collar wasn't working properly. She's being sought out by elephants.
Questions were raised about the monitoring of the cheetahs at the KNP in Sheopur district after the recent deaths of Tejas and Suraj, two African cheetahs, who were both radio-collared. As a result, wildlife chief warden Jasbir Singh Chauhan was transferred last month after a steering committee meeting on the recent deaths of the cheetah in Delhi in July.
The Rajya Sabha received a statement from the Union Environment Ministry last month in which it denied any mistakes had been made, claimed that cheetah deaths were due to natural causes, and claimed that there was "no scientific evidence" to support claims that radio collar infections were to blame for the animal's demise.
The Supreme Court had instructed the Center to think about extending the cheetahs' habitat in additional states in May after expressing concern over the animals' deaths.
Up to nine cheetahs, including three cubs born in India, have passed away in KNP in the previous four months due to various illnesses, including the most recent loss of the mother cheetah.
